Tours and The Visitor Center
Tour groups are limited to 13 people and include a 3/4-mile walk through the estate. Tours begin and end at the Visitor Center in downtown New Canaan, Connecticut (across from the train station), where vehicles transport each group to the site near the New Canaan-Stamford border. "Standard" tours last 90 minutes and flash photography is not allowed. There is a pure glass tour that only visits the house and is an hour long. Extended tours last two hours and cost more. Tours at twilight and "personalized" tours are also offered. Special Events include a "Dine with Design" picnic and film festival, as well as regularly scheduled Conversations in Context which feature prominent figures in the architecture and design community and take place for a limited number inside The Glass House.
The Visitor Center, which was designed to reflect Johnson's uncluttered aesthetic, includes a "media wall" with multiple video loops running simultaneously on a wall with 24 computer screens. The screens, not meant to be viewed in any order, are meant to reflect the many facets of the architecture, art, landscaping and other features of the estate. When the Visitor Center opened, each of the screens was running a video loop of between two and 20 minutes, centered on a different theme, with a quotation from Johnson, Whitney, or their friends or colleagues.
Along with regular tours, special tours are offered for architects and for artists and museum curators. The latter tours may spend extra time in the Painting Gallery and Sculpture Gallery.
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